ANDREW BIRD breaks down his new album track-by-track for Drowned In Sound. And Dave loved "Fitz & Dizzyspells" the other night.

FRANK BLACK has a new band with his wife.

PETER BJORN & JOHN: Bjorn talks to Paste about the forthcoming Living Thing album, including this about the song "Blue Period Picasso": "It's like a hit single from the '80s that never got to be a single. It's a really cool song... It's like an old Paul Anka song, but played by Prince."

DEREK TRUCKS, guitar prodigy and nephew of Allman Brothers drummer Butch Trucks, did a mini-set for the World Cafe streamable via NPR.

MATT & KIM fight Cute, fail miserably: "Onstage, Matt sings, attacks keyboards, and narrates with the wild, rapturous glee of a lottery winner; Kim kicks the sh^t out of her drum set and smiles so adorably she makes babies jealous. If this strikes you as nauseating, you're just not acquainted."

I WANNA BE SEDATED gets a beefed up feature with Ramones video links as part of the upgrading NPR 100.

METRIC: Emily Haines talks about the band's next album, which will be self-released in April.

JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE: Between his addiction and his dad Steve, which do you think he's less happy discussing?

JAY REATARD, a/k/a lo-fi Memphis garage-rocker Jay Lindsey, is profiled in the East Bay Express.  You can stream a few at HisSpace.

THE WHITE HOUSE RECORD LIBRARY: There's vintage vinyl in the basement.

JESSICA SIMPSON: Sister Ashlee is "completely disgusted" by the headlines concerning her sister's weight.  I would be also, if Jessica was a talented singer or actress.  RELATED?  The ever-reliable Star has Tony Romo cheating on Jessica in her own bed.

JOAQUIN PHOENIX may be hoaxing the public with his amazingly bad rap career.

JOHN TRAVOLTA: The extortion plot aginst him was really lame.

OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN's former partner , who was believed to have drowned at sea nearly four years ago, staged his own disappearance, according to an NBC Dateline investigation.

BART SIMPSON is making robo-calls for Scientology. Not prank calls, either.

MEGAN FOX could replace Angelina Jolie in a reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise?

HILARY DUFF will star in "The Story of Bonnie and Clyde," which thankfully is not even going to pretend to be a remake of the 1967 classic.

OSCARS ROUNDTABLE: Newsweek's annual gathering of hopefuls hosts Brad Pitt, Robert Downey, Jr., Anne Hathaway, Frank Langella, Sally Hawkins, and Mickey Rourke.  Transcript and video at the link.

THE SCREEN ACTORS GUILD fired its chief negotiator and replaced its negotiating committee -- a sign that a SAG feature-primtetime deal may be close without a strike.

GUILLERMO del TORO walks out of an interview that raises his cinematic whitewashing of Che Guevara's record as a mass murderer.

IRAN: President Ahmadinejad said the US must remove its forces from the Middle East and apologize for "the crimes they have committed against the Iranian nation." Egypt's foreign minister said Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas are conspiring to spark a regional conflict. US Rep. Pete Hoekstra says "there's no way and no chance to stop the Iranian nuclear program."

IRAQ: Early voting for the provincial elections has begun. Kurdistan leader Massoud Barazani rejected the formation of Awakening councils in the North.

A LORIS EATS: Let's go to the video.

BABY GIRAFFE born Monday morning at the San Francisco Zoo.  Awww... some pics at the link.

STREAKER the PIG will attempt to correctly choose the Super Bowl XLIII winner.

A GATOR stuck in a pipe in Cape Coral FL, is lured out with...

THE £100000 PUPPY: We can clone him.

TV on the RADIO have released a clip for "Stork and Owl." And you can hear 'em cover Bowie's "Heroes" at the 'Gum.

NEW RELEASES: Mark Olson & Gary Louris, Of Montreal, The Bird & Bee, Loney Dear, Pat DiNizio, Springsteen and more are streaming in full from Spinner this week.

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE played the Bowery Ballroom last week; you can stream the gig via Stereogum.

RON SEXSMITH does the four free songs thing for Daytrotter, all from his Exit Strategy of the Soul.

THE ULTIMATE BEATLES COUNTDOWN: Every song ranked and analyzed by JamsBio.

GLASVEGAS perfoms a mini-set for The Interface, which is more than Twofer Tuesday.

A.C. NEWMAN tries to explain his solo process to MetroNews Vancouver.

BRIAN WILSON talks to LAist about Chris Montez, his latest album, the Wondermints and more...

ANDREW BIRD talks to New York magazine about learning via the Suzuki Method, joining a punk-ska band, current faves and more... 

BILLY JOEL: At Slate, Ron Rosenbaum tries to explain the Piano Man's awfulness. (Thx, Belle!)

TOM CRUISE was quizzed about his flatulence habits by controversial British TV host Jonathan Ross.

SIR PAUL McCARTNEY has told friends he plans to wed his new girlfriend Nancy Shevell.

MICKEY ROURKE may participate in WWE's "Wrestlemania 25" in Houston on April 5.

ALEC BALDWIN celebrated his double SAG award win with the teenage daughter he once called a "rude little pig." Now that you mention it, she loonks like a Baldwin.

OPRAH WINFREY coulda been a Senator, had impeached Illinois Gov. Gov. Rod Blagojevich been just the tiniest bit wackier.

UGLY BETTY got some ugly news.

HARRY POTTER and the HALF-BLOOD PRINCE: There's new footage in the Japanese trailer introduced by Daniel Radcliffe.

THE OSCARS has an entirely convoluted system for counting nomination ballots.

THE SCREEN ACTORS GUILD is wracked with infighting over a planned strike-authorization vote. The schism has split SAG's high-profile members in a way that few can recall. "They've got a mutiny of stars, and SAG leadership cannot stand up to a mutiny of the stars," said David Prindle, author of "The Politics of Glamour," a well regarded history of the union.

PAKISTAN: Mullah Fazlullah ordered 43 political and tribal leaders to stand trial in front of a Taliban court in Swat.

AFGHANISTAN: Last year, 3276 IEDs were detonated or detected in Afghanistan, a 45 percent increase over 2007 and a new record.

IRAQ:  Less than four months after the disbanding of the Sons of Iraq, or Al Sahwa, auxiliary force, the Iraqi Interior Ministry has overseen the formation of a new unit created to thwart Al Qaeda strikes.  Provincial elections this month highlights the ascendancy of tribes, esp. the Anbar tribes.

BABY ELEPHANT turns 5 months old at the Oregon Zoo. Awww... some pics and video at the link.

A CAT is recovering after an arrow is removed from its head.  Video at the link.  That's one wild and crazy cat.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: 48 dead whales beached on the north west tip of Tasmania.

PET HOARDING: A 53-year-old man was arrested Sunday at a rural Van Zandt County, TX, property where 185 animals were living in squalid conditions with no food or water. At least 50 goats and sheep, 41 dogs, 30 chickens, 18 ducks and geese, seven rabbits, three turkeys, two cats and one alpaca were found alive at the home Sunday.  ALSO: 600 dogs rescued from puppy mills in Washington State pregnant with an estimated 1500 future puppies.

A FIESTY RACCOON has bitten off a pervert's penis as he was trying to rape the animal.

PETER BJORN & JOHN "Lay It Down" in a new video that's probably NSFW for language..

DeVotchKa played the World Cafe on Friday, so you can stream the gig on demand via NPR.

THE HOLD STEADY: Craig, Tad and Franz stopped by the latest edition of Sound Opinions.

ROBYN HITCHCOCK gives Aquarium Drunkard a tour of NYC and an advance MP3 from his upcoming album. 

ROYAL BANGS did the four free songs thing for Daytrotter, one previously unrealeased.

RICHARD THOMPSON talks to the Yorkshire Evening Post about the UK tour of 1000 Years Of Popular Music, which is as good an excuse as any to relink this one.

FRANZ FERDINAND talks to Eye Weekly about their new album -- which is already streaming -- axe-throwing and Win Butler's "paddle hand."

THE SILVER JEWS: David Berman has disbanded them.

SHE & HIM: Zooey Deschanel spills a few details about their next album during an interview with MTV at Sundance.

OF MONTREAL: Kevin Barnes gives advice on love, drinking, footwear and more to Drowned in Sounders.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Paul Blart: Mall Cop repeats atop the b.o. with another 21.5 million, reminding everyone it's January.  The Underworld flick had to settle for second -- 20 million against a 35 million production budget isn't bad, though the two prior installments tended not to have legs. Gran Torino drops to third -- it will cross the 100 million mark this week and be Clint's biggest grosser in unadjusted dollars.  Hotel For Dogs moved up to fourth place, but hasn't made even half of its production budget yet.  Slumdog Millionaire leaps up to round out the Top Five; it's 56 million total to date far exceeds its 15 million production budget.  Below the fold, Inkheart debuted in seventh place, doing better overseas than in the US.

JOHN TRAVOLTA & KELLY PRESTON: Two prominent Bahamian citizens and a paramedic were detained in the Bahamas in an alleged extortion scheme targeting John Travolta following the death of his son, according to reports. One, Obie Wilchcombe, the island's former Minister of Tourism and a friend of the Travoltas, was also arrested but later released, according to TMZ.com.

KELLY OSBOURNE returns to rehab.

JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT: Why she called off her wedding (hint: insecurities on both sides). Former LFO frontman Rich Cronin told Howard Stern he would have married her.

TOM HANKS apologizes for calling Mormon support for California's Proposition 8 "un-American."

JOHN CLEESE is dating a 27-year-old? Or a 45-year-old? 

MOLLY RINGWALD is expecting twins.

MADONNA & GUY RITCHIE, contrary to prior reports, are still wrangling over arrangements for their children.

THE SAG AWARDS went to these actors.  On the TV side, 30 Rock and Mad Men took home statues. Slumdog Millionaire won the ensemble actor for a movie.

TOM BRADY & GISELLE BUNDCHEN are not engaged, according to the latter. 

FRED ARMISEN & ELISABETH MOSS, otoh, are engaged. Funnyman + Mad Woman = Crazy Delicious.

KELLY RUTHERFORD of Gossip Girl wins a round in her custody dispute.

ROBERT DOWNEY, JR. should be awarded Best Reaction Ever to a supporting actor Oscar nomination.

ISLAMISM DOWN UNDER: A Muslim cleric in Melbourne has sparked outrage by telling his followers it is acceptable to rape and beat their wives.

THE STANS: David Kilcullen (an advisor to Gen. Petraeus) is among the authors of Enduring Interests in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a new policy brief from the Center for a New American Security.

CAT IN THE VASE: Like Dr. Seuss, but with a vase.

A GOAT was busted for attempted auto theft in Nigeria.

A BOSTON TERRIER stopped a rape attempt in Pompano Beach, FL, sheriff's deputies said.

THE SQUIRREL THREAT: Rampaging squirrels are attacking nurses on their way to work in County Durham, meaning health chiefs have been forced to give advice to their employees to protect them from the animals.

TWO HORSES tested positive for an equine venereal disease in Wisconsin.  So many punchlines, so little time.